Jackson's mastery visible in Bynum, Odom

BOSTON – Not quite as soon as Jerry Sloan is back on his Illinois farm, but someday soon Phil Jackson will be at his house on the lake in Montana ... the NBA going on without the greatest coach in its history.

Maybe at post-retirement age Jackson will find a knit sweater warms him just fine and he won't miss having the living room of his home always a roaring furnace of competitive fire.

But behind the banging and beating scenes on the basketball court in Jackson's job are subtle beauties: people connecting and lives touched.

Any coach at any level gets that, even amid the awfully serious business of the Lakers and Celtics and championships. Jackson's Lakers team won Thursday night – and man, did Jackson want to win – but the winning came the right way: The result flowed out of good and right things that happened for people about whom Jackson truly wants good and right things.

At the forefront of this victory, as usual, were star players Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, scoring the most points. And although Jackson will forever be raised and removed from his pedestal for his skill and fortune with his star players, he really does coach 'em all.

The proof was on opposite sides of a steamy locker room in which three years ago the Lakers' season ended so sadly because both Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom so crucially let everyone down.

In case you haven't noticed, Jackson has done quite a job coaching 'em up to where they are now.

No, they're not perfect and they're not even All-Stars. They're simply better – so much better – and what they did Thursday night reminded that they're two-time NBA champions who with Jackson's help might soon even be feeling glee with three.

The methodical Bynum, 23, got dressed after the game and sat in front of his locker to talk to reporters while pulling on white athletic socks before black sneakers. The gregarious Odom, 31, chatted away before, during and after his shower. (Seriously, he yelled jokes from the shower room about how many stitches he should say he got for the gash on his forehead.) Then Odom kept talking before, during and after saddling up his clotheshorse with the Louis Vuitton belt and Gucci hi-tops.

Bynum had been the subject of trade speculation about being sent out for Denver small forward Carmelo Anthony in the days before the game. Asked if his strong game was motivated by that, Bynum went another direction, saying: "I was motivated by George Mumford."

And by George Mumford, Bynum really meant Phil Jackson.

Jackson is the one who brought the Boston-based Mumford in to talk to the players at the shoot-around that afternoon. Mumford is a sports psychologist whom Jackson used to more frequently bring in to help his earlier championship teams think, meditate and clarify.

"Talked a lot about not allowing outside things to distract you," Bynum said. "Train your mind to keep coming back to center."

A guy interested in building computers and cars, an avid reader and someone whose favorite video game is FIFA Soccer 11, Bynum has one of the most analytical minds in the NBA. With Mumford's guidance, that mind was harnessed to unleash that 7-foot body on Boston for a season-high 34 minutes – time that Jackson chose to trust Bynum and time in which an empowered Bynum learned much like Gasol has that getting passed the ball doesn't necessarily start with the passer.

When asked to recall Mumford's actual title, Bynum struggled for some time. Then he had the revelation to dig into his left pants pocket for Mumford's business card: "Personal/organizational development consultant," Bynum read.

Then Bynum smiled and did a little jump at finding the answer, adding proudly: "There, dog!"

He was happy, and that's the Bynum the Lakers love to see: smiling easily, wide-eyed and curious. He hasn't found that place nearly as much this season, sitting out all of training camp and the first 24 games after knee surgery. That's nothing compared to the 46 regular-season and 21 playoff games he never made it back for in 2008, except this has felt heavier given the greater expectations of him.

With his light step out of TD Garden late Thursday night, Bynum also carried a paperback book under his arm: Junot Diaz's "Drown," a collection of short stories that reach out from tales of New Jersey settings and absent fathers toward Bynum's childhood of the same.

It was Jackson's gift to him. The coach had gone shopping at the Borders store near the team's Boston hotel Tuesday to fulfill for the final time his tradition so well-known by now that it feels gimmicky. Jackson's books, then and now, have always come from the same place as an expression of his personal caring.

Not nearly every player is a reader at heart, though. In this era, especially, there are far more players like Odom, whose eyes are always drawn to moving pictures over written words.

Among those visual interests is Odom's budding reality TV career. He's used to being on camera by now, and his latest clip is a commercial for the unisex fragrance he and wife Khloe Kardashian are putting out.

Except the sweet spot with husband and wife, all huggy and smiley, starts to look a lot like a ridiculous "Saturday Night Live" skit when played in front of a manly audience of Odom's teammates. That's exactly what happened the night before the game against Boston – though it went further than that.

Another of Jackson's unique traditions is to edit footage of Hollywood movies into playoff scouting videos to drive home points of emphasis. Although the postseason remains far away, Jackson had footage of huggy, smiley Odom spliced into the video of the Lakers' Jan. 30 loss to the Celtics.

The result was some serious comic relief while the Lakers were presented with footage of some of their serious mistakes against Boston.

What did we say after that loss to San Antonio about the Lakers' needing more fun stuff in this season that has felt too much like work? Jackson knows Odom is a unifying force for the team, the universally loved figure who anchors those pregame huddles, and this was Jackson making the most of it.

There was a time when Odom could reasonably be said to be the player whom Jackson most failed as a coach in getting to meet his potential. Those days are gone, however.

This Odom has learned to move without the ball, organize the triangle offense, shoot the J and play help defense. In a lot of ways, this season he has finally met the lofty goal of becoming the Scottie Pippen perimeter sidekick for Bryant's Michael Jordan.

Odom was more like Jack Haley in the first half Thursday night – struggling and later admitting he tried too hard to create opportunities for himself. But whereas Odom used to have these flighty games where he'd disappear into the clouds and stay there, now he gets more focused instead of more frustrated. And he made Jackson proud with a second half of eight points, eight rebounds and two blocks – overcoming the cut that would require eight stitches above his right eye and helping the Lakers outscore Boston, 47-33, after halftime.

Odom, by the way, wouldn't even be here if not for Jackson imploring Jerry Buss to spend the money to re-sign Odom in the summer of 2009.

In a league where no one player but Bryant makes more than $20 million, Bynum and Odom make a combined $21.9 million ... a power-position platoon that is the greatest luxury for the NBA's biggest luxury-tax team.

Amid all the short-sighted calls for Carmelo to come, bear in mind that the past nine meetings between the Lakers and Celtics have been won by the team with more rebounds – and Gasol, Bynum and Odom had 31 of the Lakers' 47 this time around.

It's fair to wonder down the line whether Bynum ever fully blossoms with Jackson no longer tending the garden. But for now, they're all together.

Odom pushed hard for his first All-Star berth this season, but he also promised the rehabilitating Bynum behind the scenes in December that he couldn't wait to relinquish that starting job so Bynum would be back doing his thing, too.

Well, it was Jackson who in 2008 force-fed an incredulous Odom the concept of coming off the bench to make room for Bynum. Jackson had the vision long before his players even dreamed how good it'd feel to fulfill it.